The overall objective of this program project is to investigate the role of organization-facilitating structures embedded in stimulus materials and to evaluate training programs designed to induce the active utilization of perceptual and cognitive strategies over a range of memory and problem-solving tasks. The long-range purpose of this objective is to improve the performance of mildly retarded children and adolescents on a wide variety of first laboratory- and then school-related tasks. Among the specific research activities undertaken are: (1) assessing and training the reasoning abilities of mentally retarded individuals through logical games; (2) studying the availability and accessibility of conceptual information; (3) analyzing uni-modal and cross-modal sequential processing; (4) studying encoding and retrieval strategies; (5) understanding stages of strategic behavior; and (6) training cognitive strategies that are permanent, transferable and fluent.